Merchants are also using new tactics like telemarketing

Multichannel Merchant surveyed 347 US companies, including B2B merchants and retailers, and asked them which tactics—other than triggered emails—they used to market to shopping cart abandoners. In 2015, more than half (51.2%) of respondents said they used retargeting, and when surveyed in January–February 2016, 44.4% said they used retargeted ads to reach shoppers who abandoned items in their cart.

While retargeting is a popular tactic used my many US merchants, it isn’t the only one. Indeed, in 2015, 19.5% of respondents said they used live chat to reach shopping cart abandoners. A year later, 15.6% of respondents said they used that tactic as well.

Additionally, in 2016, merchants also used some new tactics to market to shopping cart abandoners that they didn’t use a year prior. For example, 15.6% of respondents said they used pop-up window reminders and 4.4% said they used telemarketing.

There were also US merchants who did not market to people who had abandoned their carts. In 2015, 41.5% of respondents said they hadn’t, and in 2016, 37.8% said they didn’t.

Overall, it’s not surprising that merchants are looking to retargeted ads to reach those that abandoned their shopping carts. Targeting may get a bad rap sometimes, especially among digital audiences, but digital shoppers appear to find at least some targeting helpful.

A June 2015 survey from Adadyn, conducted by Morar Consulting, found that 62% of US digital shoppers believe digital ads are generally well targeted to their interests. Younger respondents tended to be more likely to agree with that than their older counterparts, but even among respondents ages 55 and older, half said digital ads were properly targeted for them.

And with retargeting, the potential for poor targeting is minimized. Shoppers may be served ads for items they’ve already purchased at a competing retailer, for example, but they likely won’t see ads for products they have no interest in at all.